The Trip to Yakushima: Day 1

It's Golden Week and Japanese are enjoying an extra long holiday. Although Golden Week is one of the worst times to travel (because roads are jammed with cars) we decided to go down south to Yakushima.

Yakushima is a relatively small island covering an area of 500 km² and inhabiting around 15 000 people. It is located 120 or so kilometers south of Kagoshima, the most southern prefecture in Kyushu. The island is listed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage locations because of its rich flora, ancient specimens and unique forests.

Some of the attractions in the island are: the huge Jomon Sugi (Japanese Cheddar tree), Mononoke Hime forest and Mt. Miyanoura. The island also a place of choice if you want to relax in the most beautiful beaches in Japan - and that is exactly what we did on our first day of the five day journey.

The first day in pictures:
After a 4.5 h drive from Oita, we reached Kagoshima-city, from where a ferry carried us to Yakushima in 2 hours. To our surprise, Mt. Sakurajima, a mountain right in front of Kagoshima port burst a "Welcome to Kagoshima" smoke cloud. Well, moreover it reminded of flight problems in Iceland and Europe.


Local bus circulates the Kagoshima island but in order to get to all the hikes we had planned to go it was necessary to rent a car. First notions of the island were, quiet, sunny, tropical, and so very beautiful!


The entrance to the most beautiful beach in Yakushima, the Nagata Inaka-hama beach. Turtles that come in July to spawn there make it a famous in one way.


The other side is that the waves are quite good so many surfers come to do their stuff there.


The sea water was much warmer than we thought. After sitting in the car and ferry for most of the day, it felt just awesome! We had so much fun running around and getting splashed over and over again by the waves! :P


Another sight, the bright white Yakushima Toudai (屋久島灯台) surrounded by sparkling blue sea and lush greenery.


The round-shaped island can be circulated in about 3 hours. This is a photo from the west-coast, which is famous for the scenic road. Where as the east-coast is well inhabited, the west-coast seems less touched.


Despite all warnings, when we saw this monkey mother and its baby, I had to go as close as possible and take a photo. They are known to steal cameras and even jump inside a car through an open window. Well, this time no such thing happened and I got a serene shot.


Before heading to our hostel in the southern part, we took a look at one of the top 100 waterfalls in Japan, the Oko-no-taki that swoosh rapidly from 88 meters.


More in the coming post by Yumiko...